Hockey stick



Nov. 23, 1943. I c, BERGER 2,334,860

' HocKEY STICK l Filed Aprn'za, 1942 El Ef 7a3-fon B e1- /crer ff,

Fae-.tentent Nov. 23, 1943 ange I UNITED STATES PATENT *OFFICE HOCKEYSTICK Clayton Berger, New Hamburg, Ontario, Canada Application April 28,1942, Serial No. 440,803

2 Claims.

The present invention relates to hockey sticks and is particularlydirected to providing a hockey stick which can be manufactured withsubstantially no wastage of material and which is very light, strong anddurable.

A hockey stick comprises a handle or shaft portion and a blade portionbent at an angle of from about 40 to 50 to the handle. In themanufacture of hockey sticks, the wastage of material is the mostimportant factor in the cost of production. This is due to the necessityof cutting the billet, from which the stick is made, from material whichis sufficiently Wide to produce a blade which is of suicient Width orheight to be effective and to meet standard requirements. Ordinarily,the blade portion is about twice the width of the handle or shaftportion. As the blade portion constitutes only about one-sixth of thetotal length of the billet, about 40% of the wood used is wasted whenthe hockey stick is formed out of one piece of material.

A further diiculty is present in the manufacture of hockey sticks inthat it is necessary to produce a stick which is very light and yetsuiciently strong and durable to withstand the sudden strains to whichit is subjected.

In view of the increased cost and the depletion of first grade rawmaterials, together With the demands for lightness, strength anddurability, various forms of hockey stick construction have beenproposed to overcome the difficulties.

One form of construction is that in which the handle or shaft portionand the blade portion are made in two separate pieces and joinedtogether by a tongue and groove arrangement. This type of constructionresulted in substantial savings in material, but the strains to whichthe blade portion is subjected are such that the blade soon becomesdetached from the handle. Various arrangements for strengthening thejoint have been attempted and found unsatisfactory.

One of the principal objects of the present invention is to construct ahockey stick in which the handle or shaft and the main blade portionsare formed in one piece without wastage of material.

A further object of the invention is to construct a hockey stick withoutwastage of material and, at the same time, increase the strength anddurability of the stick far above that usually found in hockey sticks.

The hockey stick of the present invention comprises, in general, ahandle or shaft portion and a main blade portion of substantially thesame Width and formed in one piece. A groove is formed in one edge ofthe main blade portion and extends longitudinally thereof. The Width orheight of the blade is increased to that required in standard practiceby providing a strip alignable with the grooved'edge of the main bladeportion and having a groove in one of its edges in alignment with thegroove in the main blade portion. The strip is joined to the main bladeportion by means of an insert or tongue vwhich is of similar shape andinsertable into the grooves. The insert or tongue is formed, preferably, in such a manner that its grain is substantially at right anglesto the substantially parallel grains of the main blade and the stripportions. The insert or tongue is, of c-ourse, effective for joining theportions of the blade together and by having the grain of the tongue atright angles to the grains of the blade portions, the strength of theblade is greatly increased.

An understanding may be had of the construction of the present hockeystick from the following description and accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a sidevelevation of a hockey stick embodying my invention,the built-up blade p0rtions being shown in full lines and the insert ortongue being outlined in dotted lines;

Figure 2 is an end view in section of the blade portions showing thealigned tongue receiving grooves;

Figure 3 is an end elevation taken along the line 3 3, Figure l;

Figure 4 is a side elevation of the blade portions, partly broken awayto show the tongue or insert;

Figure 5 is an end elevation of a modification showing the tongue orinsert extending almost the full width of the blade portions; and

Figure 6 is an alternate modification in which the required width of theblade iS obtained by securing the added strip to the base of the blade.

Like reference characters refer to like parts throughout thespecification and drawing.

The hockey stick constituting the present invention is formed with ahandle or shaft portion I, the lower end of which is bent, usually at anangle of from about 40 to 50 to form the main blade portion 2. Thehandle portion l and the main blade portion 2 are of substantially thesame width and are formed of one piece of material, usually about oneand one-half inch stock, Without any wastage except, of course, thatsmall amount which may be lost as dust in the sanding and finishingoperations.

The blade portion 2 is brought up to the required standard width of fromtwo and one-half inches to three inches, which is the usual width of aplayers stick, or wider in the case of a goal keepers stick, by securingthe strip 3 to the main blade portion. The strip 3 is permanently joinedto the top of the main blade portion and extends from the toe of theblade to the shaft slightly above the curvature of the bend to the pointindicated by the numeral 4, to which point the strip is tapereduniformly to the handle portion I.

The strip 3 is secured to the main blade portion by means of the tongueor insert 5.

One edge, preferably the upper edge, of the main blade portion 2 and theopposite edge of the strip 3 are formed with aligned slots or grooves6-1 respectively, as shown in Figure 2. The slots or grooves 8 1 are inalignment and extend longitudinally the length of the respective bladeand strip portions.

The tongue or insert 5 is shaped to t snugly in the aligned grooves 6-1and is joined securely and permanently to the blade and strip portionsby glueing, animal and vegetable glues or syntlietic resins beingsuitable for this purpose.

The strip used to increase the width of the blade portion may, ifdesired, be joined to the base of the blade portion, as shown in Figure6, in the same manner as that described hereinabove. In this modication,the added strip is indicated by the numeral 3a, the main blade portionby the numeral 2a, and the insert by the numeral 5a.

The strength of the blade portion may be increased greatly by sodesigning and forming the insert 5 that when in place the grain of thetongue or insert, as illustrated in the preferred modification shown inFigures 3, 4 and 5, is at right angles to the grains of the main bladeportion 2 and the strip 3. A plywood eiect is obtained byforming theinsert in this manner andit has been found, by repeated tests, that theportion of the built-up blade containing the insert is the strongestpart of the entire blade. In View of this discovery, it may be desirableto form the grooves 6 and l and design the insert 5 in such a mannerthat the insert extends almost the entire width of the built-up blade.This modification is illustrated in Figure 5.

The hockey sticks of the present invention are very easily manufactured.The billet is nrst bent to form the shaft and main blade portions, andone edge of the blade portion is grooved to receive the insert 5. Theinsert 5 is coated with glue and inserted into the groove 6 after whichthe strip 3 is set in place. The parts of the built-up blade may beunited permanently by the application of pressure, or of heat andpressure. The hockey stick is then put through a sanding machine toremove any sharp edges and to apply a smooth finish to the handle and aslight tapering effect to the blade portion.

It has been found that hockey sticks constructed in accordance with thepresent invention meet with all the exacting requirements of the tradein that they have al1 the advantages of the hockey sticks formed in onepiece, and they have the added advantage of increased strength along theblade and around the heel resulting from the plywood effect of therelationship between the longitudinally extending insert and the bladeportions.

In the manufacture of the hockey stick, Waste of raw material issubstantially completely eliminated thereby permitting extensive savingsin the cost of producing the hockey stick accompanied by, as pointed outhereinbefore, decreased weight and increased strength and durability.

It will be understood, of course, that modifications may be made to thespecic embodiment of the invention described and illustrated herein,without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in theappended claims.

What we claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent of theUnited States is:

l. A hockey stick comprising a shaft portion and a main blade portionmade in one piece and of substantially the same Width, a longitudinallyextending strip alignable with an edge of the main blade portion, alongitudinally extending aligned groove in each of the opposing edges ofsaid strip and said main blade portion, and an insert adapted to t inclose fitting relationship into said grooves, the grains of thestripobrtion and of the main blade portion being substantially paralleland the grain of the insert being substantially at right angles thereo,said strip portion being effective for increasing the width of the saidmain blade portion and said insert being effective for joining togetherand reinforcing the main blade portion and said strip portion.

2. A hockey stick comprising a shaft portion and a main blade portionmade in one piece and of substantially the same width, a longitudinallyextending strip alignable with the uppermost edge of the main bladeportion, a longitudinally extending aligned groove in each of theopposing edges of said strip and said main blade portion, and an insertadapted to fit in close tting relationship in the slot formed by thesaid grooves, the grains of the strip portion and 0f the main bladeportion being substantially parallel and the grain of the insert beingsubstantially at right angles thereto, said strip portion beingeffective for increasing the width of the said main blade portion andsaid insert being effective for joining together and reinforcing themain blade portion and said strip portion.

CLAYTON BERGER.

